Philadelphia Folk Festival
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| Philadelphia Folk Festival | |
|---|---|
| Location |  Schwenksville,Pennsylvania |
| Years active | 1962- |
| Date(s) | three days on the third week of August |
| Genre | Folk, Country, Blues, Folk rock |
| Website | Official website |
The Philadelphia Folk Festival is a three-day festival of folk music that has been held annually in Schwenksville, Pennsylvania in the vicinity of Philadelphia by the non-profit Philadelphia Folksong Society since 1962. Gene Shay has for the entire history of the festival been the Master of Ceremonies, and continues to be a personality of folk music on the East Coast, hosting the long-running Sunday night folk show on WXPN (88.5 FM). The Folk Festival grounds were originally on Wilson Farm in Paoli, Pennsylvania.
For roughly 35 years, the Philadelphia Folk Festival was anchored on the calendar as the weekend before labor day, regardless of what the dates were. In the last few years, schools in Pennsylvania started opening their doors earlier, and the 'Powers of the Fest' decided to move the fest to two weekends before Labor Day. Staring in 2009, the Folk Fest weekend was moved to the third weekend in August. Annually, this folk festival attracts more than five thousand campers for the weekend and ten thousand day-trippers who share, join together, and perform the myriad forms of music one expects (and with many surprises) of a music festival. People travel across the country to return to this annual event so that they can play again. The Philadelphia Folk Festival is almost completely volunteer-run and organized.
It is now located on the Old Pool farm on Clemmers Mill Road in Upper Salford Township. Hundreds of people turn to the Perkiomen Creek for swimming and other events during the show.
Kevin Bacon has attended the festival around 2004/2005
